Monday, September 26, 2011

Might not be for everyone but I am wedded to the idea of taking stories out of libraries, schools and dedicated performance spaces and delivering them in the streets, markets and other places where folk gather.

In trying to grapple with what a cut flower farm might have looked like back in the the 20s - 30s I have been emailing and driving and googling!

Friends suggested I visit Cloudehill - nursery and gardens in the Dandenongs.

Jeremy Francis responded to my emails with warmth so I made the journey to speak to him face to face. Cloudehill is breathtakingly beautiful but I was there on a mission. I will return and devote a day to exploring these gardens and I will return again and again.

Jeremy has built Cloudehill out of an historic working garden originally created by the Woolrich family in the 1890s. The top half of the property was a cut flower farm for many years.

In my true story, Edith Wilkinson's cut flower farm was on the west side of the mountain facing towards Port Phillip Bay. Her property was probably burned in the 1962 fires and is now part of Parks Victoria. She'd cleared a small swathe in the forest for her business. This photo, taken at Cloudehill shows a bulb meadow behind which you can see the blackwoods and the mountain ash. Did Edith's property have a similar margin? I suspect so.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

It takes a team to make something really special. And yes ... in case you had forgotten ... it's all about birds!

After working for several years on the text of my next book, we are finally moving onto the next stage. With the support of Melanie Raymond (publishing Museum Victoria) and independent editor and author Nan McNab, the words are done! But the next phase is inviting an illustrator on board.

We are delighted to have Tasmanian, Peter Gouldthorpe on the project. Peter is a well loved and highly decorated artist. Peter's work reflects a deep respect and wonder for landscape and the animals and people within it. His talent for capturing Australian subjects with warmth and accuracy is wondrous.

In a flying visit to Melbourne to visit family, Peter and partner Jennie, managed time to visit Museum Vic and explore the bird collection under the watchful eye of Wayne Longmore, senior collection manager, vertebrates.

While Wayne wheeled out the specimens, Peter took pictures and I finally got to the bottom of my confusion - 'bell miners' and 'noisy miners'!! Don't even think about it. Scientific names are long, hard to say and remember but common names do your head in with common misunderstanding!

There is melancholy behind those doors in the Museum, where all the dead and stuffed reside but there is also great beauty.

Friday, September 2, 2011

I'm told that some folk like to spot trains - spotting the Kamishibai is a much more interesting pastime in my view.

Here it is in Ballan. This little town turns into a story town once a year for National Literacy and Numeracy Week. The first pic is Hagrid having a go at telling a story. Not sure if using his wand as a pointer is wise!

Fairy Amanda looked a picture next the K and bike. A little unstable on the sloping path, I couldn't have told my stories without the help of a kind fairy

I'd like to say that I rode my bike and the K to Ballan but it is 80 ks and I was due to start at 10.00am so I confess - I cheated.

It is my joy to take stories out onto the street and test my metal as a storyteller. The street was good enough for Shakespeare!

At a more serious event at the Melbourne Writers Festival. Bernard Caleo presented a brilliant session for secondary students. A tough audience they say - Bernard had these young people spell bound. And how beautiful does the Ted Smith Kamishibai look floating in classic black?